PESHAWAR, Oct 31: Re-employment of the secretary of Election Commission of Pakistan, Mr Kunwar Muhammad Dilshad, has been challenged in the Peshawar High Court (PHC).

The petitioner contends that Kunwar Dilshad attained the age of 60 years on Sept 15, 2005, and may be retired from service in accordance with the constitutional provisions and law of the land.

Reemployment of provincial election commissioners (PEC) of the NWFP, Punjab and Sindh and a joint secretary of the election commission have also been challenged in the PHC.

The petitioner submitted that PEC Frontier Mr Abdullah attained the age of retirement on July 10, 2005, and Safiur Rahman Iqbal, Joint Provincial Election Commissioner (JPEC) Sindh, on Sept 3, 2005. Likewise, Provincial Election Commissioner Sindh, Ahmed Ali Halepota, had retired in 2002, and was still working as the PEC. He had set a record of getting four extensions in service.

It was submitted that the Punjab Provincial Election Commissioner, Rahim Nawaz Durrani, had retired in May, 2004, and had got two extensions.

The Joint Secretary (Elections), Muhammad Salim Akhtar, was also due to retire in January 2004. However, he still held on to his job.

Challenging the holding of most top slots in the Election Commission by retired officers, the petitioner submitted that till 2002, there was not a single case of re-employment in the ECP. However, after May 2002, as many as ten notifications in respect of re-employment of officers after superannuation had been issued by the ECP without fulfilling the ESTA code formalities.

It was submitted that re-employment and superannuation of senior officers “has violated merit and frustrated about 1600 ECP employees, as many have retired in their existing grades, while promotion chances for the rest of staff have been blocked because reemployed officers have been sitting on their old positions for the last four years”.

The petitioner complained that the sitting Chief Election Commissioner had also given three more extensions to officers, including secretary of the commission.

It was prayed that the Election Commission be directed to relieve all the re-employed officers and give promotion to senior officers, thereby bringing an end to contractual employment and restoring the credibility of this constitutional body. —PPI